GameInformer recently managed to secure an interview with Super Mario Odyssey producer Yoshiaki Koizumi and Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi to talk about the critically acclaimed Mario adventure on the Nintendo Switch. It took a while for a new 3D Mario title to emerge after Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U but the team says that Super Mario Odyssey was always planned for the Nintendo Switch.
“It was always planned for Nintendo Switch. We really were considering a lot of the hardware capabilities specifically for this game, and wanted to make the most use of them.”
– Super Mario Odyssey producer Yoshiaki Koizumi
“I think the idea of what the Nintendo Switch is became very important around here, because it can both function as a console or portable device. We really thought about what sort of software features would make the best use of those capabilities. Super Mario Odyssey really answers to a lot of that capability in the way we had hoped. We wanted to time it for year-end release to make the most of that as well.”
– Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi
If I remember right, soon after 3D World was released, they said the next 3D Mario game will be on the next Nintendo home console, so I guess this confirms that.
I doubt a game so big like Mario Odissey can be done in so little time. When development kit were ready for the Switch? If they can do Mario Odissey in just two years then I don’t understand why actually there is so little software around now. January and February are empty months for Nintendo games. I think Odissey began development with the Wii U and then switched completely platform. Motion controls are just gimmicks added, they don’t seem essential for this game.
Because Mario Oddysea literally took most of Nintendo resources to do, I would not be surprised if Nintendo had 200+ employees on the game full time at all times, plus extremely likely one team for continuous performance and coding trimming as the game keep being developed.
Also Nintendo done this before, Mario 64 came out with the N64.
Nearly 90 people for what I know. Looks like a big game done in no time. Or they just began with the Wii U in mind and then switched platforms and ported the old tools to the new one and optimized everything from there. I suppose it take time to make a Mario Odissey game from the ground up with 90 people.
Duh? Anyone could have told you that.
Well, they definitely hadn’t finalized Switch kits when they began development. Development obviously began on Wii U kits, and the game absolutely uses the same graphics engine that nearly all Nintendo produced Wii U games did, and they added in the physics they developed for Breath of the Wild. So sure, they can say it was planned for the Switch the whole time, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s actually just a polished up Wii U title.
Sorry, but it’s more likely they just developed on regular computers with tests being done on preliminary expected equivalent hardware. And as development of the Joy-Con continued tests would be done with those prototypes on the expected equivalent hardware. There is no reason at all they needed to test on Wii U kits.
Also, using a successor of their Wii U engine doesn’t say anything either. Engines can support a lot of systems and Switch was made with a certain compatibility with Wii U in mind.
So really your “fact” that it’s a polished up Wii U title is rubbish.
Your definitions make no sense. Being able to be run in Wii U hardware does not make it a “polished up Wii U title”, it by definition isn’t in any way a Wii U title, whether they used Wii Us as tools in some early stage of development or not. By this reckoning, a fairly large numbers of launch titles in gaming history are in “fact” not games for the consoles they’re designed for.
Not trying to defend Mario Odyssey as being some technical marvel. I’m not even a fan of the game. I’m just a fan of what words mean.
A great game such as this doesn’t deserve Pii U’s blessing. XP That’s a fact.
Are you sure SMO didn’t start out as a Wii U Game? As in 2014 it was announced that a New 3D Mario game would be coming to the Wii U, but sadly it never came to be: https://web.archive.org/web/20140702211145/https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_games_by_date
The Switch wasn’t even known of in 2014 or at the time of SM3DW’s release.